


The Warlock and the Head

by floralathena



Series: Happy Gay Shadowhunters [5]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Human, Dialogue Heavy, M/M, Sick Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-20
Updated: 2017-07-20
Packaged: 2018-12-04 12:52:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11555595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/floralathena/pseuds/floralathena
Summary: Inspired by the tumblr user who took Nyquil and 5-Hour Energy together and blacked out for a day.Magnus gives Simon a ride to school, Alec gives Simon a set of flashcards, and they gain a reputation.“Magnus, no!"Magnus reached into the backseat with a grabby hand. Sighing, Alec pressed the 5-Hour Energy into his palm.“I don’t approve of this plan.”Simon stirred. His head had been resting on the window and Alec had honestly thought that the poor kid had passed out already.“Magnus yes,” he mumbled.“Simon, here. They should, like, cancel out, right?”Simon looked blearily at the 5-Hour Energy, shrugged, and removed the cap.“Sounds good to me,” he said, and tossed it back.“Oh my god, Magnus, you’re going to kill him.”





	The Warlock and the Head

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hexicity](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hexicity/gifts).



Alec sighed, leaning against the plain brick wall outside of his classroom. “Have fun in Mass Media. I’ll just be here… with all of these tiny freshmen…  _ alone _ .”

Magnus laughed, lighting up his face, and Alec internally applauded his decision to overdo his reluctance.

“It’s an hour and a half. You’re good with economics. Don’t be so dramatic, that’s my job.”

Magnus raised their linked hands and pressed a kiss to Alec’s fingers, then unlaced them and walked away.

After watching Magnus walk away for a totally appropriate, non-leery period of time, Alec entered the classroom and found his seat. As soon as he sat down and looked to his left, he quietly groaned.

“Oh, hey Alec! I didn’t know you had Econ with us. Did you not take it when you were a freshman?”

Alec rolled his eyes. “The class was full. I couldn’t get it until now. Trust me, I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t have to be.”

“Oh. Uh, okay, cool.” Simon’s smile faltered, and he turned back to Clary to continue their conversation. Alec didn’t know why Clary and Simon were sitting together- their names were all on the desks in alphabetical order, which is why Lightwood was stuck next to Lewis, but Fray had no business being near him. Maybe if they could get away with it, Alec could too. Alec looked around to see if he could find an empty seat that wasn’t smack-dab in the middle of the room, with no luck. Right as he resigned himself to his fate, their Econ teacher walked in.

Alec instantly understood why the two didn’t care about sticking to their assigned seats.

“Alright, class, I only have two requests of you this semester. Don’t make me write anybody up, and turn in your work. If you do that and you keep the volume level low enough that I won’t get in trouble, we won’t have a problem. You should already have the syllabus and the textbook, your first assignment is to read chapter one and answer the questions at the end. Put them in this bin by class tomorrow.”

Mrs. Ambrose, who had never actually introduced herself, sat at her desk, put on headphones, and opened a book. Clary and Simon pulled out their textbooks, but started chatting and didn’t seem to have gotten past the first paragraph.

Well, then.

-

“I’m really sorry about this, guys.”

“Nonsense! We’re glad to have you, aren’t we, Alec?”

“Overjoyed,” Alec said in a monotone, and was rewarded by Magnus pinching his thigh.

“ _ Ow! _ It’s fine, Simon, you live close to the school anyways,” Alec said, and received a gentle pat from Magnus.

“Thanks! I’m sorry this was such short notice, it shouldn’t be more than once or twice, I usually ride with Clary, but she has a doctor’s appointment this morning that she didn’t think to tell me about until, like, one am, and I forgot that I needed to get a ride until three.”

“You two are either the best or worst couple imaginable. Just try to give me a little more warning next time. Don’t worry about it, though, what are friends for?” Magnus asked. Alec itched to reply with “Infringing on my time with my boyfriend, apparently,” but Magnus still had one hand resting on his thigh, and he really didn’t want to know where Magnus would pinch in response to that.

Simon chatted incessantly for the entire drive. It would have been annoying, but Magnus seemed to have a sort of magical power to keep up with Simon and know what he meant to say when Simon himself was confused. Whenever Simon forgot to tell the end of a story, Magnus would remind him, and he always had the perfect word when Simon was stuck saying “It was one of those electric, um, the spinning, bake-y thing-”

“Mixer?”

“Yeah, that! Sorry, I’m dumb.”

“No, it’s nothing.”

“Anyways, she…”

It was kind of impressive. When they got to the school and Simon had left the car, Magnus moved to get out, but Alec cupped his face, pulled him back in, and kissed him. Alec stroked his cheekbone with his thumb as they kissed, firm yet gentle.

“What was that for?” Magnus whispered, his eyes closed.

“You’re magic,” Alec said, unable to explain his urge any further. 

In typical Magnus fashion, he seemed to understand while Alec himself was lost.

-

“Chapter five, section 3. In the bin tomorrow.”

Alec set to work, but was soon distracted by Clary and Simon. The two had a textbook open and multiple sheets of notebook paper, but as usual, they didn’t seem to be working. Alec tried to tune out the sounds of the classroom, but his attention was drawn back to his left when he heard Simon groan.

Simon had his head in his hands, and Clary had her face firmly planted on the table. Both looked absolutely miserable.

“I just don’t  _ get it _ , it’s all made up and nothing matters and price floors and ceilings are like the opposite of what they sound like and I’m too stupid for this,” Simon said in one breath. 

“ _ Everything _ is fake, Simon, they just made up all these words so rich white dudes could swindle the rest of us into supporting large multinational corporations.”

“Wait, I thought they were about government money, not company money.”

“I don’t know, Simon, I tried to read it all but I mostly just skimmed it. I just can’t do the big blocks of text.”

“I know, I can’t either. Shit, you know that I’m kind of stressed out and dying over how low my grade is in here, but we can’t do any better if we don’t figure this out. Is the ceiling the one where you want higher or lower prices?”

Alec watched as the two argued over what a debt ceiling was and made a decision he thought he might live to regret.

Alec stood up and moved his chair to the other side of Clary and Simon’s desk.

“Price floors and ceilings aren’t that complicated. The book spends three pages describing a concept that needs a couple sentences at most. Price floors are minimum prices set by the government-”

“Ha!” Simon said, pointing in Clary’s face.

“-regarding products sold by businesses on the market.”

“Ha!” Clary said, flicking Simon’s finger.

“Price ceilings are maximum prices. That’s it.”

Clary knit her eyebrows in confusion. “Wait, but why is there even a floor for stuff? Don’t you want the price to go lower?”

“They’re generally used to support people like farmers in economic depressions and recessions. We need farmers, but to keep them in business sometimes, we need to make sure they’re getting enough money for their produce.”

“Oh. That actually kind of makes sense.” Simon said, and smiled at Alec. 

“...So could you explain, like, the entire book to us?” Clary said, and Alec almost left in annoyance, but realized that she was serious. The two had been whispering over their textbooks for the past few weeks, and it suddenly dawned on Alec that they weren’t slacking, they were trying to understand their old, boring textbook from what their brains could glean.

He remembered Simon mentioning something about the two of them being ADHD buddies, and he felt kind of like an asshole.

“...Yeah. Yeah, I can do that. Let’s finish this section first, though.”

-

“AH-CHOO!”

Simon sniffled and wiped his nose with his sleeve. Alec gave him a disgusted look.

“Lewis, don’t you dare spread your sickness all over me.”

“I’m sorry! I can’t control it,” Simon said, sounding absolutely miserable.

“Simon, are you sure you don’t want to stay home? I can still turn around. Mrs. Donahue loves me, she’ll excuse Alec and I for being tardy.”

Simon sighed. “No, we’re taking our first big webpage design test in first block and Mr. F won’t be able to make it up after today.”

Alec frowned. “Simon, it’s his job to make sure you can take your test.”

“His wife is due soon, he’s taking leave. It’s not his-” Simon began to cough… and didn’t stop. Alec shifted in his seat and leaned forward, putting a hand on Simon’s shaking back.

“Simon, did you take anything this morning?”

Simon shook his head no, still coughing weakly.

“Magnus, do you have any Dayquil or Mucinex in here?

“I should have some Nyquil in the black bag.”

“The glitter one or the sequin one?”

“Glitter.”

As Alec rustled around in the multitude of bags Magnus kept in the backseat, Simon finally stopped coughing and caught his breath. 

“Magnus, could you please make the sun less bright?”

“Alec’s working on it.”

“Aha! Found it.”

Alec handed Simon the bottle.

“Don’t take too much. Use the cap to measure it,” Alec said, and patted Simon’s shoulder.

Alec had been annoyed when Magnus made him get in the back, but now he was glad that Simon had the space of the passenger seat. He didn’t particularly like the kid, but he deserved to be comfortable. By the sound of his hacking coughs, he was knocking on death’s door.

Simon slurped down the Nyquil and took a hit from an inhaler.

“I’m just worried about staying awake for the test. I can feel my stupid body shutting down. Not now, dude! Die tomorrow!”

Simon was speaking to his own immune system.

Alec was tempted to turn the car around himself and drive Simon to the nearest Urgent Care.

“Look, dear, we’re almost there, you just need to stay up for another hour or so,” Magnus said comfortingly.

“Yeah, I can do that,” said Simon, sounding as though he were half asleep already.

Magnus met Alec’s eyes in the rear-view mirror, and Alec felt the familiar sense of fear rise within him. His boyfriend and his siblings all liked to try and fix things that didn’t really need to be fixed, and Alec had learned to sense those moments before they occurred. 

“Love, could you find my blue bag?”

“The ombre or the chevron?”

“Ugh, ombre. The chevron isn’t mine, I’d never touch the stuff. I’m holding it for Cat, it was on sale when I went to that boutique on Friday.”

Alec probably shouldn’t think it’s adorable that his boyfriend talks about fabric patterns the way that most people would talk about drugs, but he smiled a little anyways.

“Look in the zipper pocket.”

Alec looked in the zipper pocket.

“Magnus,  _ no _ !"

Magnus reached into the backseat with a grabby hand. Sighing, Alec pressed the 5-Hour Energy into his palm.

“I don’t approve of this plan.”

Simon stirred. His head had been resting on the window and Alec had honestly thought that the poor kid had passed out already.

“Magnus yes,” he mumbled.

“Simon, here. They should, like, cancel out, right?”

Simon looked blearily at the 5-Hour Energy, shrugged, and removed the cap.

“Sounds good to me,” he said, and tossed it back.

“Oh my god, Magnus, you’re going to kill him.”

“Nah, he’s fine. Aren’t you fine? Look, we’re here! And right on time, 7:00,” Magnus said cheerily, pulling into his parking space.

Simon unbuckled his seatbelt, grabbed his bag, and exited the car before Magnus could even put it into park. Alec watched as he walked towards the building, oddly stiff.

Alec looked at his boyfriend.

“If he dies today, I’m not going down for it.”

-

“Clary,” Alec said, pulling her aside before the bell rang, “has Simon been doing okay today?”

Clary frowned. “Sort of? I mean, he’s like, alive and stuff, but he’s not really… all there? He said he took a potion? I figured you guys gave him some Benadryl or whatever, right?”

Alec cleared his throat. “Um, yeah, or whatever.”

Clary narrowed her eyes. “Alec, what did you give him?”

“Well, um, technically, Magnus gave him the 5-Hour Energy, I just gave him Nyquil.”

“Oh my god.”

The bell rang, and Alec practically teleported to his desk, where Clary would have to lean around Simon to yell at him. 

“Chapter thirteen, section B. In the bin by tomorrow.”

So, no break in routine today. 

It was almost 12:00, and Alec was concerned about how Simon would get through the rest of the day. It sounded as though he had made it alright through the first half, though he had texted Alec about twelve different Pride-related memes during lunch along with a rainbow of heart emojis, which made Alec dubious of his mental state.

Alec looked nervously over to Simon’s desk as he pulled out his textbook. Simon was staring at his book and he had a piece of paper out, but his eyes and hands were still. He began to blink, and Alec watched as his head slowly lowered until it was resting on the table. He went totally still, in a way that seemed unsettling for somebody so inclined to perpetual motion. Clary pressed two fingers to the side of his neck and gave Alec a thumbs up.

Simon had fallen asleep. 

Alec reached over to poke Simon and he didn’t react. Sighing deeply, Alec took off his hoodie and rolled it into a ball, lifted Simon’s head, and gently lowered him down onto the makeshift pillow.

“Not a word, Fray.”

Clary smiled and mimed locking her lips and throwing away the key. Of course, she also began to mime opening a lockpicking kit, and methodically turning the tools. As Clary put on a one-woman improv show, Alec set to work making a set of flashcards from the book. Before he started helping Clary and Simon, he never really did the reading unless the question called for a specific quote or set of steps. Econ was more common sense than anything, at least to Alec. The other kids in the class disagreed, but they were freshmen and most of them spent the entire class period talking anyways. Now, though, he made sure to go through the text and pick out the most important terms and define them. Simon and Clary were far from stupid, but they had a hard time remembering specific terms, something which Alec was rather adept at himself.

Alec noticed that the dull roar of the room had spiked. A couple of boys in the corner had started a minor verbal battle, and their mediocre insults were drawing ridiculously enthused cheers and jeers from their audience.

“ _ Hey! _ ” Alec said sharply. The crowd turned to him, looking vaguely fearful. Alec  _ certainly  _ wasn’t proud that they were so scared of him.

“Could you all shut up for once?” he asked, and nodded towards Simon, whose pale face and red nose drew shame from the kids. They all nodded silently, and slunk back to their desks. 

Nobody rose their voice above a whisper for the rest of the class period, and Alec felt powerful.

-

As the bell rang, Alec launched out of his seat and began power-walking. He hoped he’d remembered Simon’s last class correctly. Clary had an art club meeting after school, and he really didn’t trust Simon to exit the school alone. Hundreds of teenagers would be speeding out of the parking lot and Simon was a dead man walking.

Alec reached the music room and peeked his head in. The music teacher was gently shaking Simon’s shoulder.

“Hey, I got him,” Alec said, and approached Simon. He lifted Simon’s shoulders up so that he was sitting upright, and he patted Simon’s cheek.

“Come on, Simon, it’s time to go,” he said, and Simon remained asleep.

Alec sighed. He supposed he could yell, or push Simon out of his chair, but he didn’t really know the music teacher and he wasn’t looking to get put in detention for assaulting a student.

Which left him with one choice.

Alec took his backpack strap off of his right shoulder, and slung Simon’s bag onto his back. It was remarkably heavy, and Alec wondered how Simon had carried it around all day. Bending down, he put one arm under Simon’s legs and another under his back to lift him bridal style.

“If anybody asks, I employed a fireman’s carry,” Alec said to the amused teacher, checked the hallway for people he knew, and left the room.

-

“Simon, you’re home,” Magnus said gently, and shook his shoulder. Simon jerked awake and looked around wildly.

“Are we running late?” he asked.

“What? No, Simon, we’re home.”

Simon looked at the clock and his jaw dropped.

“Wait, school’s over?”

Magnus and Alec exchanged worried looks.

“Holy shit. Did I take my test?”

“Presumably,” Alec said. “You made it through most of the day.”

“Huh,” Simon said, unbuckled his seatbelt, grabbed his backpack, and exited the car.

“I think our boy’s in the clear,” Magnus said as he pulled out onto the street.

“Our boy?”

Magnus put a hand to his chest. “Alexander, don’t tell me that you don’t want to help me raise our son anymore! It feels like just yesterday you were cradling him in your big, strong arms-”

“Ha-ha, you’re hilarious. I’m not an asshole, okay, I wasn’t going to wake him up. We’ve put him through enough with the drug cocktail  _ you _ fed him.”

Magnus raised an eyebrow and glanced at Alec.

“But he made it through the day, so clearly it wasn’t that bad of a decision. You worked your magic yet again,” Alec said. His words were rewarded with the most beautiful smile in the world.

“Want to go to Java Jones before I take you home?”

“I thought you’d never ask.”

-

“He’s a bit out there, but he’s a good teacher. I’m a bit unusual myself and you all love me. Give him a chance, AP Lang was probably my favorite class last year besides-”

“Hey, Bane,” a random kid cut in. He plopped his tray down on the table next to Magnus, and Magnus gave him such a withering look of disgust that Alec was almost impressed that the greasy-looking kid didn’t run away immediately. He leaned in close to Magnus, who leaned back.

“How much for that potion?” he asked expectantly.

“What? I think you have the wrong person.” Magnus replied, sending a  _ HELP ME!  _ look towards the rest of the table. Across from him, Jace didn’t even look up from his phone and Izzy just shrugged.

“You’re Magnus Bane, right? The Warlock? I heard you have some shit that can make you forget a whole day.”

“Um.”

“Where did you hear this?” Izzy asked, not-so-subtly texting Clary, who was stuck in lunch detention for “attempting to assault another student with a jump rope.” Clary insisted on the use of quotes when referring to the incident.

“Simon Lewis, dude. He was  _ so _ fucked on his Snapchat the other day, I want that shit.”

Magnus raised his eyebrows. “Simon Lewis is sick. I gave him cold medicine.”

“That can’t be  _ it,  _ man, help me out!”

Magnus’s face went cold. “And a secret ingredient. One that you shouldn’t know, because you should be looking for professional help, not drugs from teenagers. Leave.”

The kid scoffed. “Fine, whatever, keep your secrets. You guys are just as cold as people say.”

“You guys?” Izzy asked, arching her eyebrow (which she had spent twenty minutes filling in that morning).

“Yeah, Bane and Lightwood. The  _ Warlock and the Head _ , the most powerful seniors in school. What bullshit,” the kid said in a mocking tone, and left in a huff.

“...The  _ Head _ ?” Alec asked incredulously.

Izzy’s thumbs were moving so quickly they were almost a blur.

“Clary says it’s something people in your Econ class came up with? Ever since you started helping her, she went up two letter grades. Aw, Alec, that’s so sweet!” Izzy smiled at her brother, then glanced back down at her phone and laughed at whatever Clary had sent her.

Jace, who was texting Simon as he was trapped watching kids audition for jazz band, added, “It’s not just  _ Head _ , the title’s longer. They’re calling you the  _ Head of the Institute _ , like you’re the only one at this school with a brain. Magnus, you’re the  _ High Warlock of Brooklyn _ , which is objectively a much cooler title. Also, look at this gif Simon made of this kid vaping into his trombone.”

Alec and Magnus glanced at each other as Izzy leaned in to look at Jace’s phone. 

“These names are ridiculous,” Alec said.

“Oh, completely,” Magnus replied.

“...Though dating the High Warlock of Brooklyn certainly seems like it would afford a decent amount of influence.”

“...You busy tonight? I imagine being the Head of the Institute must be demanding.”

Alec grinned. “It’s hard work, but somebody’s got to do it. I think I can clear my schedule for you, High Warlock.”

“Oh my god, you two are into it,” Jace groaned, “Could you be any lamer?”

Izzy rolled her eyes and began to tell Jace off. “Who are you, Chandler Bing? Every time Simon mentions a TV show you go and binge it…”

Alec couldn’t bring himself to care what they were saying. He was too busy gazing into a pair of magically beautiful eyes. 

For whatever reason, the goofy nicknames felt  _ right _ .


End file.
